The England National Team

England's defence is woeful though and probably the biggest concern.

Smalling is average and lacks an ounce of brain between his ears.
Cahill has also been average but is the only defender England have with genuine top class experience.
Clyne is defensively poor, particularly with his awareness and positioning. Most effective on the front foot when he's afforded room to run forward.
Rose has promise and was probably England's best defender, but will he be reliable enough against genuine quality he's not really faced before?

Then there isn't a whole lot to consider that were out of the squad. What was once England's biggest strength has seen the quality diminish drastically in that department.

What a corker by Vardy though, him and Kane need to play, as does Alli. Arguably England's best 3 players at present.

The last twenty minutes or so with the diamond and Kane and Vardy dropping wide looked class. Best I might have ever seen England look.

shock I'm right

Sorry to derail slightly, but why do we have an U20 and U21 squad at international level? Seems rather excessive...

Are you? Wilshere played good last night didn't he.

If only

I had to watch Henderson attempt to play football for 90 mins

Yeah that was pretty painful to be honest

Actually just heard someone talk about how Henderson was the star player against Germany and how he always performs for England. Although he is a Norwich fan so it's not like he has any clue what a good footballer looks like.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35908204

sigh

I love that last paragraph.

"I believe in playing football, I believe in taking the initiative and you can only win things if you have a team who can take the game to the opposition. It is difficult to win things in the long term if you go on the back foot."

That statement pretty much means Rooney shouldn't be playing.

So, Milner to captain and Sturridge to start against the Netherlands tomorrow. Unfortunately I don't think it's likely to be as good a game as the Germany friendly! Just hope we beat them as I have a Dutch boss...

After Saturday i predict us to win fairly comfortably.

Gonna predict 2-1 for England, Holland are in pretty dire straits these days. Which is a shame to see as they've always consistently produced world class players (up until the last few years).

Tonight's line up:



Vardy on the wing

Stones & Smalling...

I think that is the way forward.

I'm more concerned with Roy's insistence on this formation when we have players that don't suit it. Square pegs in round holes, etc.

Danny Rose takes just 5 mins to go back to being Danny Rose again, should have been a penalty.

James Milner look very average at the moment.

All the Liverpool lot do, Lallana's shocking.

Thats a good goal, first bit of quality in the game.

Genuinely fed up hearing what Jamie Vardy was doing 'this time four years ago'. Can't wait for next season when they can tell us what he was doing 5 years ago.

Adam Lallana aka Johan Cruyff

Stones \o/

Rose is awful.

What was Rose playing at there

Unlucky for Forster; made a great save right before.

Drinkwater MOTM is a very odd choice. Genuinely can't remember him doing anything.

Not that anyone really has, Lallana's probably deserved it for the only bit of good football in the entire game.

It's a souvenir he can take home and can never come back. Ridiculously out of his depth.

Can't believe Everton turned down £40m for Stones

Stones would be alright if it wasn't for Martinez encouraging him to do stupid shit.

Posted the same thing on another forum.

There's a good footballer in there, but he clearly needs someone to smack him around the ears and tell him he's being a silly twat. Not sure a big money move will massively help, but you imagine Mourinho/Van Gaal/Conte etc.. would coach that out of him within days.